I bought an audio book, a movie and a song at the iTunes Store last week. This week I bought an iPhone application and another song. What would happen if Apple ever opened up the iTunes Store as a publishing platform for photographers? What if we could sell photo books, prints, posters, greeting cards, calendars, etc. through iTunes? Fans could rate and review them just like they do podcasts. Apple could keep track of the best sellers, suggest new images every week, and generate a ton of attention to its already huge, built-in and established user base.

The behavior of the customers visiting the iTunes Store is well established. There’s nothing to learn. Millions of items are sold this way every year. Why not photos?

Here’s a scenario. You get your picture just right in Aperture, then you use a built-in plug-in to export it to iTunes. In iTunes you configure preferences such as available print sizes, types and prices. Apple does the fulfillment through it’s excellent printing service (recently revamped and well worth a look) and then Apple takes its 30% cut and the photographer gets 70%. Why couldn’t that work?

It would be one of the greatest gifts to established AND emerging professional photographers ever created. It would be a good thing. It would change the proverbial paradigm. It would make my wallet fatter too :)